| Abstract: | Abstract This article identifies two types of causal explanations of inflation that do not fit well with the categories of analysis used by economists and sociologists. These causes are first, a deliberate centralized decision to start up inflation in pursuit of some high priority political objective; and second, a weakening of the power structure underpinning a given market, so that sectional conflicts of interest can no longer be peacefully resolved except by tolerating inflation. These two causes of inflation are highly political in character, but students of politics have not taken a prominent part in recent inter-disciplinary analyses of inflationary processes. The article therefore reviews the approaches proposed by economists and sociologists. It argues that the sociological approach is almost inherently incapable of explaining inflation at the international level (the major source of historically experienced inflations), and that economics also has some difficulty in adapting itself to an environment in which the political and institutional bases of market relationships are shifting and insecure. It concludes that students of politics can and should make a larger contribution to the analysis of inflationary processes. |
